Bhagavad Gita – a study in transcendence - ancient jewel of the Vedas, full of wisdom for today

Of all the Mystery Traditions and Wisdom Cultures on the planet, throughout world history, which all mostly allude to the same thing, the Sanskrit texts of India, called the Vedas, are probably the oldest, most profound and in depth of all. And of all the Sanskrit Vedic texts, the Bhagavad Gita is possibly the most often studied, quoted and revered both at home and abroad.

Sanskrit is considered by academics to be the root language of the planet, certainly the origin of the Indo-European languages that we speak today. The Vedas are said to be ancient and even timeless, telling tales of legends beyond our time frame regarding the creation of the cosmos. The oral tradition predates the written word considerably and students used to hear the recitation of the texts from their teachers and simply memorise it to convey to the next generation. Eventually the texts were written down and the date referred to in the texts themselves as the time of this written work is about 5000 years ago. At that point we came to a juncture in the Great Ages, as the third age ended and we entered the fourth and final era called Kali Yuga (yuga meaning great age), where we find ourselves today.

Curiously the previous ages were considered more advanced than this one, with people living much longer life spans, with much more advanced powers of consciousness, and thus less use for industrial machinery to travel or communicate or even wage wars. By comparison, our culture of today is considered less advanced. Back then there was interplanetary travel with multiple races from different planets engaging among themselves, some way more advanced and pious than us and some outright devilish by comparison. Earth was considered to be just one of many inhabited planets, something we might take into consideration in our quest for answers regarding the mysteries of the universe today as well as the mysteries of our self and our “Gods”.

Many of these questions can be answered by looking into the Vedic literature (Veda means knowledge in Sanskrit), and one of the most important questions is that of our mortality and transcendence at the time of death. All who are born must die, and yet we still do now know, as a modern culture, what really happens to us at the time of death, or the nature of the afterlife. So much for our modern scientific knowledge. Well, according to Bhagavad Gita, the real goal of life is to prepare for death and transcendence at the time of leaving the body, something we care little for today and remain ignorant about, despite its urgency and commonality to all. We have been educated into forgetfulness of this important issue and thus we require a huge paradigm shift in order to refocus and re-evaluate everything we have been taught by our elders today.

There are many translations of Bhagavad Gita, but the one I studied for a decade during my twenties while at the yoga ashram of Swami Bhaktivedanta was “Bhagavad Gita As It Is”, with original “devanagari” Sanskrit dialectics, written verse format and word-for-word translation. Of the 700 verses, this is one of many that refer to the subject of death and transcendence:

srayana-kale manasacalena
bhaktya yukto yoga-balena caiva
bhruvor madhyate pranam avesya samyak
sa tam param purusam upaiti divam

Bhagavad-gita as it is, chapter 8:10

Translation: “One who, at the time of death, fixes his life air between the eyebrows and, by the strength of yoga, with an undeviating mind, engages himself in remembering the Supreme Lord in full devotion, will certainly attain to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”

The Bhagavad Gita is the preeminent text book on yoga, and “yoga” is a Sanskrit word meaning “union”. Real yoga is actually about linking up in union with the source or divinity, in transcendence at the time of death. A life of yoga practice is meant to prepare you to be in the right state of consciousness at the time of death so that you can successfully unite with the source. That’s it. The modern yoga of today is only the superficial external gymnastic practice to keep fit and have better sex. If that is where you’re at then good luck to you, but there is more to life and to yoga, if you have the ability to go deeper into the truth of your identity. Not everyone is capable of deep thinking, perhaps due to modern conditioning and bad guidance.

In this verse it is clearly stated that at the time of death the mind must be fixed in devotion upon the Supreme. Those practiced in yoga, which involves meditation techniques as well as stretching, are supposed to be able to raise the “life force” to the point between the eyebrows. Obviously there is a science to this and it involves several possibly unheard of concepts, which need explaining to even begin to understand the secrets of yoga mentioned in the ancient Vedic texts. Modern practitioners have probably heard of the chakras (chakra is Sanskrit for wheel), points in the body considered to be energy centres. The technique of yoga involves a process of raising the “life airs” to the “ajna chakra” or third eye chakra between the eyebrows.

The subtle medical science of “Ayurveda” mentions that there are life forces called “prana” (literally meaning airs) that animate our body. Some cultures call it “chi”. The yoga technique requires one to learn how to block the lower escape holes or orifices of the body and raise the prana so that it rises up the spine and comes to rest between the eyebrows at the sixth chakra point. The seventh point is above the head. This in itself involves lifelong training and practice, so that at the time of death, one can achieve this goal. And by achieving this raising of the life airs, we can theoretically leave the body in subtle eternal spiritual form and return to the source, our focus of meditation.

Usually nowadays we are unconscious or drugged as we are about to leave the body, allowing no real control over the journey of consciousness we are supposed to be taking. On top of that, the yoga technique mentioned here is simply too advanced for 99% of us on the earth at this time in history. We have no culture involving this art. We have not been raised with any philosophical understanding or education about the transcendent nature of reality. We have no training from birth in what to do and what not to do (“yama” and “niyama”), in order to facilitate this practice. Basically we are living in the last age of Kali Yuga, where yoga has mostly been forgotten and was only really practiced with any true success in the previous ages.

All hope is not lost fortunately. There are still yoga techniques we can use today to achieve the goal of life and a successful shift into transcendence at death. The key phrase in the verse quoted above from Bhagavad Gita is “…remembering the supreme lord in full devotion”. And this yoga of remembering in devotion is called bhakti yoga. It implies more a contemplative remembrance of the goal as opposed to a technical gymnastic yoga practice. It involves a lifelong practice of remembering the source, and seeing that source as a Personality, as well as merely a concept or energy. After all, the mood of devotion is recommended, and devotion is something akin to love and love is only really felt for another sentient being, particularly a person.

Thus the recommendation is to remember the source as the Original Supreme Personality of Godhead, make that your loving focus, so that at the time of death, when the mind is at its most distressed, union can be achieved. Remembrance without emotional depth is not enough. We need to imbue our meditation with emotional depth or devotion, and that is best done when focused on a person of some sort. That is the technique for us today in Kali Yuga, and the source is, in fact, the personality of pure consciousness, the original cause of all causes, with numerous Sanskrit labels or names to describe that personality. The most popular names are Krishna, which in Sanskrit means “the all-attractive” or Rama, which means “the reservoir of all pleasure”. There are many other names or labels, and the yogi of today is recommended to meditate on the source throughout life, so that when the time comes to leave the body, s/he is practiced at keeping the focus on the destination. It’s as simple as that, but takes a lifetime to perfect.

This is the first of more articles to come on the Bhagavad Gita and its contents, so if you are interested in consciousness, awakening, yoga and meditation then look out for further posts in the days to come.